Archive for April 12th, 2012

A pretty predictable result on Wednesday. Philly was bitter about a recent loss to the Raptors and finally seems to be regaining some momentum after a horrific past two months.

- Raptors minus Bargnani and later Calderon didn’t have the depth, size, skill, quickness or talent to compete.

- Of course after I write about him Alan Anderson comes back down to earth. That’s to be expected though, he was shooting way better than he has historically. He did start very well though, before tailing off.

- James Johnson continues to try to do too much. He’s shooting too much, forcing bad shots and arguably not playing as well defensively as he was earlier in the year. Dwane Casey wants him to relax and play a simpler game. That message has gotten through at times, but not at others. Earlier in the year he was the best story of Toronto’s season and looked like a key piece of the rebuild moving forward, even if eventually he would be in a sixth man/defensive stopper type of role. Now? We’re not so sure. The James Johnson who doesn’t play within his role is not helping the Raptors. Johnson needs to get back to what he was doing earlier in the year if he wants to cement himself as a part of the future.

- Even after all this time, I’m still not sure what the Raptors have in DeMar DeRozan. He shows all kinds of flashes, but still needs to work on the consistency. I think he’s a solid player at both ends of the floor, but not a star. ESPN’s Chad Ford brought this up and I agree, if a shooting guard like Bradley Beal is the best player available when the Raptors pick at the draft in June, they need to take him and not worry about the fallout. DeRozan might be more of a small forward anyways. He doesn’t have the handles or shooting range of 90% of the shooting guards in the NBA. He has the athleticism to make up for some of the size he would give up playing as a small forward.